Lawmakers are moving along a pair of measures that would provide state funds for local food banks during emergencies.
Senate Bill 1250 and House Bill 428 passed their respective committee hearings this week.
The bills would establish a Farm to Families program within the state Department of Agriculture to allocate state funds to food banks for buying, storing and delivering locally grown or produced food for food-insecure communities.
That’s already an issue in Hawaiʻi, as 30% of local households don’t have consistent access to food, according to a 2024 report by the Hawaiʻi Foodbank.
The program can also help food insecurity in the face of looming cuts to federal programs for low-income households, namely the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“ With the uncertainties at the federal level, I think it's all the more important that the state step up to fill in those gaps. … If we can give them options of more healthy, fresh food and help uplift them, they'll have better lives. So, we hope to support our communities as well as our farmers by enacting this,” said Mariah Yoshizu, government affairs assistant for the Ulupono Initiative.
SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is likely to bear the brunt of a $230 billion cut to agricultural spending as laid out in a U.S. House budget bill proposed by Republicans and praised by President Donald Trump.
Leadership from local food banks have said they’re already experiencing an increase in demand for food bank assistance, so cutting programs like SNAP would drive up that need even more. Federal cuts could also impact the food banks' supplies, compounding the issue.
The bills note that food banks already partner with hundreds of local farms and food hubs.
The Hawaiʻi Foodbank in written testimony said its own Farm to Families program, launched in 2020, has already invested $11 million into 40 local farms and food hubs, and has distributed over 9 million pounds of locally grown or produced food.
